Santa's Workshop
by clagjanet
Summary: A response to the FB challenge for a story describing how one of the secondary characters spend either Christmas or New Year's. My choice was Leatherneck.


Disclaimer: none of these characters belong to me; they belong to Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros to whom I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to take them out for a spin and bit of light humour.

A/N: This is a response to the FB challenge for a story describing how one of the secondary characters spend either Christmas or New Year's. Much thanks as always to Lanie s. for the fast beta job that lets me post this. Any errors, plotholes, etc are entirely my own.

* * *

Most years, Leatherneck made it back to Oklahoma for the holidays – at least part of them anyway – but this year they were a man down in the motorpool. Jimmy had won the lottery at the beginning of December and although they all agreed it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy – and even though he shared the wealth a bit by splashing out on some pretty nice goodbye gifts for all of them – it meant that when push came to shove, he'd done the senior mechanic thing to do, fallen on his sword and volunteered to be the guy who worked over Christmas.

He didn't really mind all that much; the other guys had families, wives, kids, the whole enchilada, while his folks were all back west. Well, they had been until his mom died last year; now it was just his sister and her passel of kids and half a dozen aunts and uncles who'd tell him he was spending so much time up north he was starting to sound like a damn Yankee, as if Virginia wasn't Southern enough for them.

"Nope," he reflected, swirling the last of the beer around the bottom of the bottle by the light of the little portable TV on his desk, "There are definitely worse places to be for the holidays."

Billy Melrose had dropped by, bringing him a fruitcake and a voucher for the pizza he was currently inhaling as well as a promise to get Jimmy's spot filled as soon as Leatherneck found anyone he trusted with the job. Ace had been the one to smuggle him the six-pack of beer, with a wink and a plate of Mrs. King's cookies balanced on top. That woman couldn't shoot worth a damn, but she sure as hell knew the way to a man's heart. Not that he thought it was her cookies that had won over Scarecrow – anybody with two eyes could see he was smitten with his wife.

Leatherneck didn't even bother to hold in the belly laugh that thought had provoked. He was just glad that nothing had come up to keep him from attending the Christmas party this year.

" _You really going this time, Ace?" he'd asked. "You and the missus usually end up missing them as near as I can tell." He hadn't known then why Lee's face had lit up with laughter, hadn't known that his teasing had hit the nail on the head so precisely._

" _Oh no, me and the missus won't be missing it. I'm pretty sure there's going to be fireworks this year –you should definitely be there too."_

And what a party it had been. When Billy had tapped a glass to get everyone's attention, the whole room had slouched into the kind of half-attention that they always gave to the usual bland management best wishes for the holiday season. It had taken several seconds for it to sink in - even with the twinkle in his eye and the beaming grin on his face – that Billy's speech had changed direction at some point to congratulating Scarecrow and Mrs. _Stetson_ on their marriage. From his perch on the stool near the coffee pot, he'd been able to lean back and watch the double-takes and dropped jaws as it sank in. Not from Francine Desmond, he'd noticed. She'd been watching the crowd as well, a barely hidden smile on her face – not that _that_ surprised him since those three were thick as thieves. He'd been slightly more surprised that Beaman didn't look very surprised either, but then again, if Desmond knew, he probably would too 'cause she'd been noticeably nicer to him this year. He grinned to himself and tipped the last few swallows of beer into his mouth. _Maybe Ace and Amanda have mellowed her out_.

He tucked the empty bottle back in the cardboard sleeve. It was a nice break to have a drink with his supper, but he liked his job too much to have more than one. The others could wait until he was off the clock and back home. He leaned his chair back, so he was balanced on the two back legs and put his feet up on the desk, to watch the last few minutes of "It's a Wonderful Life". With all the jingling sounds coming from the tiny television, it took him a second to realize someone was ringing the bell outside the garage doors to get his attention. He peered across the room, realizing he could see the silhouette of a tow truck idling outside and someone – the driver obviously – lifting a hand to start pounding to get his attention.

"I'm coming!" he hollered, rocking back onto his feet as the front legs of his chair returned to earth. "Hold yer horses!"

He swung the door open to find the tow truck driver was shorter than him – not a usual occurrence when you're a bowlegged man of shorter stature – and it took until the driver pulled down the scarf covering their face against the winter chill to realize it was because the driver was a very short young girl.

"You Leatherneck?" she asked before he even had the door halfway open.

"Yup, that's me. Watcha want?"

"Gotta delivery for ya," she hiked a thumb over her shoulder where he could now see Scarecrow's Corvette was hitched to the back of her truck. "He said to bring it here."

"Now what the hell did Stetson do to that baby now?" he asked out loud. "I only saw him three hours ago and it was fine!"

"He didn't do anything to it," said the girl. He noticed she sounded kind of pissed off at the question. "He let his kid play under the hood again and he shorted out something. My place is closed for the holidays or I'd have taken it there, but my boss doesn't like me working on stuff if there isn't some big strong man looking over my shoulder to make sure I'm doin' it right. Like any of those grease monkeys he's got working for him understand how to make her purr properly."

 _Oh, so that's why she sound pissed off._

He was already pulling on the chain to open the garage bay doors. "Well, let's get her in here out of the cold."

Fifteen minutes later, Lee's pride and joy was safely ensconced inside with Leatherneck peering over her engine trying to figure out what Phillip – because it had to be Phillip if Amanda's stories were anything to go by – had done this time.

"I couldn't believe that kid was still alive," muttered the girl at his elbow. "There was a time he would have killed anybody who touched a hair on her head."

"Yeah, that was before he married the kid's mom," he grunted, reaching out to test the torque on a few of the screws. "Did Phillip say what he was trying to do?"

"I don't know, but whatever he did, he managed to arc something to the battery and knocked himself clear across the drive way to hear Lee tell it."

"That'll be why he's still alive," Leatherneck laughed. "Ace probably figured the car had punished him enough." He peered down at the engine, finally spotting what he thought was probably the problem. "Pass me a 14mm will ya?" he asked, holding out a hand without thinking. It was only when the wrench hit his palm a second later that he realized he'd forgotten he wasn't talking to one of his boys. He looked up, but the girl wasn't looking at him – her attention was completely on the engine.

"So how do you know Lee?" he asked, starting to remove the timing belt so he could get at the source of the problem.

"I'm in his family," she answered with a shrug.

Leatherneck swivelled his head to stare at her profile. "Wait a second – are you Ronda?"

She looked surprised he knew her name. "Yeah, that's me."

"Ace talks about you all the time – you're the one that blended him up that fuel additive right?"

"Oh! Yeah, I did that for him – he seemed to be coming by too often to fill up even when he didn't need eyes and ears – and I tweaked his injection system so he was getting better mileage." She shrugged as if it was no big deal, then leaned over to see what he'd been working on. She was tiny enough that her feet actually left the ground, but she looked quite comfortable lying across an engine.

Leatherneck leaned back and stared at her. "That stuff is amazing – Ace raves about your magic elixir."

"It's not that hard. I can show you later if you want." She really seemed quite unfazed by his admiring tone.

"So you're working where? Over at Moran's?" he went on, turning back to continue his disassembly work.

"Yeah, mostly just pumping gas. He only lets me near a car when he's really strapped for time." Her voice made it clear what her opinion of _that_ was. "Oh I see what he did now," she added pointing at the fused part. "You got one of those?"

"Yeah – over on the shelf." He watched as she walked over and picked up the correct part without hesitation. "So, Moran's – you like it there?"

Ronda shrugged. "It's okay. Pay's okay and I get to work on stuff sometimes."

"You'd rather be working on stuff all the time though?"

"Hell yeah – way better than just being a gas jockey." She was barely paying attention to him now, too busy helping him work the part free and holding the new one steady while he worked to install it.

"You should find a better place," he remarked, trying to gauge her reaction. "One that doesn't have you working Christmas Eve."

"Oh I didn't mind – and I'd be off by now if Lee hadn't asked me for this favor. You know how he does those big puppy dog eyes – even over the phone? Besides, there ain't a lot of places that want to hire a girl – even if I am better at this than half the guys I know." She sounded resigned to the fact that women's lib hadn't reached the trades yet.

"I'll keep my ears open then. Get Ace to let you know if anything comes up."

She turned to look at him, obviously not sure he meant it. "Really?"

"Yeah really. Any family of Ace's is a friend of mine."

"Thanks! Like, really, even if comes to nothing, thanks for that."

She turned back and watched him tighten the last nut and then close the hood. "You think I should take her back to Lee's place tonight?"

Leatherneck shook his head. "Nah, he's knee deep in family Christmas right about now. We'll just leave her here for the night. I'll let him know she's safe and sound."

"Okay then, I'm going to head out. Might still be able to salvage some of Christmas Eve down at Dooley's after all."

"No family to go to?" he asked curiously.

"They're my family," she said simply. "Don't need anybody else."

"I hear ya," he answered in a heartfelt tone. "Well, thanks for your help with the repair. Hope you have a good Christmas."

"You too." Ronda gave a jaunty wave as she clambered back into the tow truck.

Leatherneck watched her drive away then locked the door again and wandered back to his desk whistling happily. He'd be calling Billy right after the holiday to fill that empty spot in the motor pool.


End file.
